Quote:
Originally Posted by cllew
City has a funny way of determining traffic signals when it comes to some of the local councilors.
A number of years ago the signals department wanted to take out an old obsolete traffic signal location on Watt St from the early 60's (only worked during the day) and replace it with a pedestrian corridor to have 24/7 coverage.
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The City has really moved away from the older pedistrean corridor overhead lights to on-demand traffic signals. Some examples are the one in Osborne Village near the Village Inn, on Notre Dame by No Frills and near the Assinboine Forrest. Some of them are more for cross traffic access like the one on Portage Ave near DeLuca's. That said one thing that stands out about them compared to normal intersections is the lights only exist on one of the two streets. It is actually fairly dangerous to be a vehicle on the other street as you have limited way of knowing if you are about the have the light change against you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bomberjet
Really interested to see how this thing works out. I almost applied for a job there, but decided against it due to long term employment uncertainties. The centre will be functioning from 6am-7pm on weekdays only at the start, and during large events outside of those times (Bombers games?). I could see this being a benefit during the winter months when things are slippery. It will also be interesting to see if one can notice when the signals are being manipulated by the controllers. Long greens light cycles for example.
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During something like a Bomber game I could see the Traffic Management Center (TMC) being a net
savings to the City. Currently they dispatch in the neighbourhood of 10+ police/cadets just to help with the traffic conditions. If they could cut that in half and pay two people at the TMC you have a savings in salaries being paid.
In terms of tweaking the timings, if you are someone that often travels the same route and has a fairly good sense of the light timings there is a pretty high chance you will notice if someone is messing with the normal light timings.
In terms of winter and slower times for vehicles to get moving, sure having a longer cycle would be a benefit but you have to keep in mind the overall system needs to be in balance. You don't lengthen the Bishop light at St Marys by 50% because the road is ice taking that time away from St Marys without putting in issues elsewhere. That said if you say did a universal 25% increase in timing to all lights city wide it could help get a few extra cars through each cycle and cut down some of the lost time on light changes. That said tough while the green cycle would gain 25% the red cycle would also gain 25% so it might end up being a net loss.
The bigger benefit I would imagine is adjusting to on the fly events like an accident that closes several lanes of traffic resulting in detours. So say Portage and Main is closed you could adjust timings for lights on the reroute to handle the added volume of traffic and potentinally even set lights to permanent red where through traffic is not allowed due to a road closure.
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